Zero emission vehicle

Zero emission vehicles have no tailpipe emissions, no evaporative emissions, no emissions from gasoline, and no on-board emission-control systems that can deteriorate over time. In essence, these vehicles are non-polluting.

Isn't it generally considered that, in the whole, burning for the fuel for electric cars at a power plant is *much* more efficient than doing it in the car? I've never heard any counterargument to that.

I have prepared a counter-argument to C-Dawgs ounter-argument, as follows:

On the electrical cars, you actually lose two thirds of the electricity on average between the powerplant and the home because the power lines aren't actually zero resistance. Even though the resistance is small over a short segment it is actually quite huge between the average house and the powerplant because the distance there is so huge. That right there is a 66% energy loss just during the transfer of energy between the production and utilization point. The average car, not the most technologically advanced and also discluding new hybrid-electric cars, suffers an 80% energy loss due to most of the energy of burning the fuel being released as heat. Then we must consider that rechargeable batteries themselves are not completely efficient in translating electrical energy into chemical energy and chemical energy back into electrical energy. Also, the chemical reactions to translate the energy do not stop when the car is turned off, they continue wasting power. Then you must either dispose of or recycle the battery when it outlives its usefulness, which may mean trying to transport and get rid of hazardous chemicals or revitalizing those chemicals. Then there is the fact that to get an electric car to go the same distance on a single charge as a regular car on a tank of gas, you must have a huge and heavy battery. The weight of this battery can potentially be greater than the weight of a regular car engine and full gas tank, meaning that you must use more energy to move the car. In the end, the hybrid-electric is possibly the best because you do not suffer as greatly from many of these energy loss problems.

Yes, it is possible to buy environmentally friendly electricity in many areas. The fact remains that most electricity produced in the United States is produced through the burning of carbon-based molecules such as oil, coal, and gasoline.